Renowned fiber artist Mary Zicafoose will give a lecture titled “The Power of Cloth” at 6 p.m. tonight at the University of Mississippi Museum. A reception will follow the lecture.
The lecture will detail stories of Zicafoose’s personal life and her work as an artist. Some of Zicafoose’s tapestry series are currently on display in the University of Mississippi Museum. The exhibit includes her most recent collection, “Fault Lines.” Zicafoose visited the museum in October for the opening of her exhibit.
Museum director Robert Saarnio said he views this lecture as an opportune window into the art world.
“We have a wonderfully unique opportunity with this lecture,” Saarnio said. “A visual artist of international reputation, with her work exhibited in 23 U.S. embassies, for example, who is so articulate and gifted in describing her process, her inspirations and her evolving body of career work.”
A defining feature of Zicafoose’s work is her use of ikat, an ancient dyeing technique that involves resist-dyeing and over-dyeing fibers. Zicafoose said she began weaving on a whim while in graduate school and discovered ikat several years later.
“At that time, I was weaving and selling elaborate tapestry-based carpets and was looking for a way to make my work less geometric and more painterly,” Zicafoose said. “Little to absolutely nothing was in print about ikat at the time, and I stumbled across the one little how-to book on the market. It all took off from there.”
Zicafoose’s lecture is part of the eighth annual Oxford Fiber Arts Festival. The festival officially begins Thursday and ends Sunday. It features exhibits from local artists, demonstrations, workshops and a fiber market.
“I have never attended the Oxford Fiber Festival before, but I have taught and lectured at many, many others around the U.S.,” Zicafoose said. “Oxford is just about the most charming community I have ever visited, so why would the Fiber Festival be anything but abounding with Southern hospitality and exuding with interest and warmth?”
According to the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council’s website, the Oxford Fiber Arts Festival began in 2011 as an effort by the University of Mississippi Museum, with the help of the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, to create exhibits that would reach into the community. Zicafoose’s exhibit was brought to the museum as part of this mission.
“We support the festival annually either by exhibiting textile or fiber art from a visiting artist or the Permanent Collection or by inviting a special guest lecturer from the textile or fiber arts field,” Saarnio said. “We hold this festival, now in its eighth year, in very high regard. It is a program of our highly valued partner, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.”
The lecture and reception tonight are free and open to the public. Zicafoose will also give a demonstration of the ikat technique at 9 a.m. Friday at the Powerhouse. A complete schedule of events for the Oxford Fiber Arts Festival can be found on the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council’s website.
